Technology
Interstellar Travel The Galactic Federation of Democratic Stars posseses two main forms of interstellar travel in the form of teletransportation drives - the conventional "Warp Bubble" method used for several centuries, and the highly-advanced and dangerous "Bluespace" method. Warp Bubbles Commonly used for most civilian and military transportation, Warp Bubbles resemble the "Alcubierre Drive" first developed in the early 21st century. They work by establishing a shielded bubble around a central point with variable radii, then expanding and shrinking spacetime around it. The expansion and shrinking serves to dislocate space around a vessel but preserve it inside of the bubble - effectively allowing a ship to break the speed of light. Warp Bubble drives require exotic matter that is considered highly expensive in the Milky Way galaxy. The warp drives are also extremely large and difficult to maintain. As such, many large ships exist for the sole purpose of ferrying other smaller ships through interstellar routes like "busses". It has proved to be possibly one of the most lucrative businesses in the galaxy; the majority of civilians do not possess the fortunes required for interstellar travel. Bluespace In the year 2529 A.C.E., the Federation proposed the development of a new method of FTL transportation. Initially, scientists began to develop more efficient methods of Warp Bubble transit - however, they could not eliminate the need of very rare exotic matter. Eventually a large ruined vessel of the Antecedents is discovered in 2535 by sheer luck, and scientists immediately begin work on disassembling and reverse-engineering many of the salvageable technologies within. The scientists unwittingly activated the ship's bio-computers in the process, and a self-destruct sequence was initiated. Before much valuable data could be extracted, the ship was destroyed and left hundreds of the Galaxy's brightest dead. However, the warp drive of the ship was recovered - which was enough to allow humanity to reverse engineer a new warp drive. Bluespace, they called it. The new method of interstellar travel involved tearing holes through spacetime using inter-dimensional fatigue beams, in order to open a brief tunnel into a parallel universe. The new parallel dimension was reported by the first volunteers as "very fucking blue". It was recorded, however, that Bluespace was a lot smaller than the actual universe. For every kilometer traveled in Bluespace, a ship had traveled potentially lightyears in the home universe. This allowed for near-instantaneous travel across enormous distances, and opened up the possibilty of Intergalactic Travel, which had never successfully been accomplished via conventional means. In 2540, many military ships are equipped with Bluespace drives to allow entire armadas to arrive at locations in unreal speeds. In under a decade, the Federation uses this technological advantage to conquer the entire Milky Way galaxy under their banner. They then set their sights to the universe beyond, wondering if they perhaps would encounter other sentient life. Nanotechnology In the mid 2300s, early work began on a technology which is known in modern times as Nanotechnology. It involved constructing "supersystems" via thousands or millions of tinier "microsystems" which were dubbed simply as Nanites. Nanites are microscopic, hyper-intelligent, self-replicating and autonomous robotic masses that can construct or modify matter based on a set of input parameters. In the earlier years of the Galactic Federation of Democratic Stars' rule over the Milky Way, nanotechnology was used to enhance and optimize infantry arms and interstellar war machines. Later on, experiments on injecting specialized Nanites into a human body to enhance - or, "augment" it - would become widespread. Nano-augmentation Traditional augmentation technology involved the total replacement of a human's limbs or the insertion of a human's nervous and cranial system into a foreign machine. These methods, while effective, were often viewed negatively by purists who did not believe it morally correct to replace a human's body with machinery. People whose limbs and organs had been replaced by machines would constantly need to upgrade and replace them. These constant juggling of limbs and organs would result in inevitable bio-degradation of whatever was left of the body, and eventually, degradation of the central nervous system. Those with traditionally-augmented limbs would rarely live above 50 years old. On the contrary, non-augmented individuals could enjoy lives for as long as 150 years. The later incarnation of augmentation technology discovered in Antecedent ruins, Nano-augmentation, solved these problems. As nanotechnology became further refined, Nanites could be directly implanted into a user's body without seriously harming them. Their body would remain entirely organic, and no limbs or organs would ever need to be replaced. Nanites could improve a human's muscles, perfect their eyes, enhance their minds, and allow them to become naturally more efficient than a robot or machine ever could. The Federation, in 2450, drafted a standard nanoaugmentation set for wealthy civilian populations across the galaxy. A push began to accelerate the evolution of man. By 2540, 40% of the galaxy was virtually immortal. The militaries of the Federation possessed men and women who could do battle with superhuman proficiency against lesser-equipped and unaugmented foes. The far more dangerous and expensive sets of nanoaugmentations, therefore, would only be used for government officials and Federation military. A few rare supersoldiers were created by the GFDS Special Forces; god-like warriors bred solely for galactic "peacekeeping" operations. A single soldier is said to have wiped out a planet that refused to adopt The Prophecy's religious doctrines. Computing Terran technology has expanded exponentially throughout the centuries. Mass-computing and storage is commonplace. A cubic kilometer of perfect simulation has been long since achieved, which opened up many new possibilities with virtual and augmented reality technologies. Artificial Intelligence Since the discovery of The Overseer on Earth's moon, an ancient antecedent artificial sentience, mankind has been inspired to create silicon life of his own. Man-made intelligences operate on a massively-inferior scale than The Overseer despite most deriving from its antecedent technologies. Unlike The Overseer, however, man-made intelligences are extremely mobile and can travel from mainframe to mainframe very easily, and are even able to distribute and clone themselves across multiple devices. A single AI can take on the role of thousands of crew aboard a large vessel, or can be a dedicated adviser to a captain. Alternatively, they can be inserted into robotic suits